I’m not sure how many of you know, but NBC News has waded heavily into blogging this year. There have been some excellent pieces written this week by NBC correspondents Carl Quintilla and Martin Savidge. They have both been on a ground tour of the Gulf Coast on a weeklong “Post-Katrina” assignment.
I strongly encourage you to read their dispatches from the Gulf.
It’s all over at The Daily Nightly.
-Bruce (GayPatriot….back in Virginia for the weekend)
10,000 versus 964
Remember Mayor Nagin’s hyperbolic statements that the MSM ate up in the first hours of his Katrina-induced coma?
PAULA ZAHN, CNN: We are just now starting to get a clear picture of the massive disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina. But even as we speak a much grimmer task is also underway: Recovering bodies of the victims. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin now says as many as 10,000 people may have died in that storm or its aftermath.
But reality bites Nagin’s apocolyptic tantrum….. La. Search for Katrina Dead Ends at 964
FEMA did nearly 23,000 secondary searches in New Orleans with about a dozen teams.
As of Monday, the Katrina death toll in Louisiana stood at 964.
Maybe he meant that there were 10,000 city buses dead in the water?
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
Peggy’s Wisdom on Katrina — and our Shifting Attitudes Toward Government
In her column today, Peggy Noonan once again shows the stuff that has made her my Athena. In a particularly wise piece, Peggy not only faults big media for its coverage of Katrina, but she also expresses concern about something which Katrina revealed “a change in the relation of the individual and those who would govern him.”
While Peggy finds American nature “in the story of Jeremiah Johnson,” the mountain man who “didn’t like authority [and] wanted to be left alone,” today it seems we “hunger for someone to take responsibility.” Emblematic of this shift in attitude is a story out of Galveston the day before Rita hit land. Peggy saw two cops arrest a “fat Texas guy” for swimming in the crashing waves. While acknowledging that this guy was probably crazy, Peggy laments that “in the America where I grew up, you were allowed to be crazy.”
Instead of government just maintaining the peace in times of disaster, it is taking more and more authority onto itself, often with little dissent from the people. Peggy fears that if we “lose the right to be crazy, we’ll lose the right to be sane.” Thus, we need to make clear that, even in disasters, government’s role should be limited:
It is the government’s job to warn and inform. That’s what we have the National Weather Service for. It is not government’s job to command and control and make microdecisions about the lives of people who want to do it their own way.
I have only begun to explore the ideas in this wise piece. Peggy also does a great job of evaluating “the media’s part in this.” While she finds that “[r]eporters on the ground in New Orleans deserve great credit,” she also noted that “media have trouble distinguishing between the helpful reporting of facts and the whipping up of fear.” Since I can’t do justice to this wise piece in my poor post, just read the whole thing!
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
UPDATE: Just got an e-mail update from Barnes & Noble that Peggy’s next book, John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father, will be released on George Eliot’s birthday. I delight in that serendipity. Not only is Peggy like Athena, but she also has much in common with Eliot (whose real name was Mary Ann Evans).
Mary Mapes: MSM’s Poster Child
There seems to be some serendipity in the upcoming release of former CBS News Producer Mary Mapes’ book and media acknowledgment of its own biased coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Indeed, in the past two days, at least two leading conservative bloggers (Hugh Hewitt and Powerline) have commented on both topics. Just as the MSM tailored its reporting of the hurricane to fit the story it wanted to tell–that the slow recovery was all Bush’s fault–so did Ms. Mapes tailor her reporting of the president’s National Guard service to fit the conclusion she had reached long before she obtained memos which supposedly confirmed her theory.
Mary Mapes, as you many recall, had been pursuing the story of the president’s National Guard service for five years. Like many on the left, she believed the president’s father pulled strings to get his son a National Guard post so he wouldn’t have to serve in Vietnam and that once there, the future president shirked his duty. But, she could come up with no hard evidence to prove her case until a man she called an “unimpeachable source” came up with documents which confirmed that theory.
Alas (for her), bloggers quickly determined the memos to be forgeries, largely based on the typeface (CBS claimed the memos were from the early 1970s, yet they used proportional spacing typical of computer word-processing programs). The bloggers’ case was strengthened when CBS revealed that the “unimpeachable source” was Bill Burkett, a man with a long history of hating George W. Bush.
Ms. Mapes let her bias, her own belief that Bush had to have shirked his duty, cloud her judgment just as the MSM did in pinning the blame on president Bush for failures in the relief effort in the aftermath of Katrina. Though Dan Rather, Ms. Mapes comrade-in-arms in the Memogate scandal, called the MSM’s coverage of the Hurricane, “one of television news’ finest moments,” in the past couple of days, even the LA Times, an MSM mainstay, has found that coverage to be distorted.
[Read more…]
Louisiana Sold Back To The French!!
President Bush and a giddy Jacques Chirac shake hands on the deal.
BATON ROUGE, LA. – The White House announced today that President Bush has successfully sold the state of Louisiana back to the French at more than double its original selling price of $11,250,000.
“This is a bold step forward for America,” said Bush. “And America will be stronger and better as a result. I stand here today in unity with French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who was so kind to accept my offer of Louisiana in exchange for 25 million dollars cash.”
The state, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild.
“Jacques understands full well that this one’s a ‘fixer upper,'” said Bush. “He and the French people are quite prepared to pump out all that water, and make Louisiana a decent place to live again. And they’ve got a lot of work to do. But Jacques’s assured me, if it’s not right, they’re going to fix it.”
The move has been met with incredulity from the beleaguered residents of Louisiana.
“Shuba-pie!” said New Orleans resident Willis Babineaux. “Frafer-perly yum kom drabby sham!”
However, President Bush’s decision has been widely lauded by Republicans.
“This is an unexpected but brilliant move by the President,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. “Instead of spending billions and billions, and billions of dollars rebuilding the state of Louisiana, we’ve just made 25 million dollars in pure profit.”
“This is indeed a smart move,” commented Fox News analyst Brit Hume. “Not only have we stopped the flooding in our own budget, we’ve made money on the deal. Plus, when the god-awful French are done fixing it up, we can easily invade and take it back again.”
The money gained from ‘The Louisiana Refund’ is expected to be immediately pumped into the rebuilding of Iraq.
(GP. Editor’s Note — A friend just emailed this to me…. if anyone knows where it originates…. please let me know. I’d like to give proper attribution!)
Non-Partisan Congressional Study Outlines Proper Federal Disaster Response Mandated By Law
The following is the executive summary from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service detailing the proper Federal Response to a Natural Disaster based on a review of the Federal statute passed in 1988 establishing the process.
===================
Overview of the Process for a Federal Response to a Natural Disaster
In an effort to provide better understanding of the process, the following document is intended to be a brief overview explaining how the federal government responds to natural disasters.
In 1988, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, was enacted to support State and local governments and their citizens when disasters strike. This law establishes a process for requesting and obtaining a Presidential disaster declaration, defines the type and scope of assistance available from the Federal government, and sets the conditions for obtaining that assistance. All incidents are handled at the most immediate organizational and jurisdictional level – local and State agencies are the primary response and recovery units for any disaster. Police, fire, public health and medical, emergency management, and other personnel are responsible for incident management at the local level. The National Guard, State Police, and other responding state agencies are coordinated by the Governor. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is tasked with coordinating the Federal response.
[Read more…]
Media Neglects Rita’s Gay Angle
In an excellent column on media bias and the coverage of Katrina, Jonah Goldberg has also noticed bias in the coverage of Rita which even your humble blogger missed, but then again, so did the gay media:
The questions raised by unlovely Rita are as painful as they are obvious. Will gays stay behind in disproportionate numbers in this disproportionately gay city? If so, Why? If gay marriage were legalized, could some of this disaster be avoided? Would George W. Bush have responded more quickly if the victims were just a tad less stylish? And, of course: Will the federal government help keep Key West festive?
Why weren’t reporters standing at the ready to caterwaul about the wreckage at their feet? Cher albums and the collected writings of James Wolcott strewn about like beer cans and pizza boxes in an apartment yet to be transformed by the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Now, just read the whole thing for Jonah’s broader points on media coverage of Katrina.
HT: Polipundit’s Lorie Byrd
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
Say it isn’t so!
Colorado Patriot wrote in to tell me how poorly one of my favorite singers behaved at a concert/fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Not only am I am a fan of Bette Midler’s voice, but I often love her acting as well. In a past post, I mentioned how her “stupid comedy,” Ruthless People, changed my life for the better. I love her (and Lily) in Big Business and delighted in her cameo in Get Shorty. And, of course, I am a fan of Beaches.
At the New York concert, this talented actress and singer said:
I got a letter from the Republican Party the other day. I wrote back, ‘Go fuck yourself’ . . . George Bush is a fan of mine — he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.
As Colorado Patriot put it, “Truly tasteless considering what the organizers of this event were trying to accomplish.” Exactly.
Boycotting Bette’s work is clearly out of the question; as PrismWarden put it, “Giving up Bette, it’s practically a gay funeral.” Still, Beaches may never again be the same.
Bill Clinton: Without Class
After returning yesterday evening from an afternoon & evening of socializing and entertainment, I logged on to find another whopper from the master of the whopper, the man who joins Democrats Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson (Democrats as well) as the only presidents re-elected without winning a majority of the popular vote:
It’s like when they issued the evacuation order. . . . That affects poor people differently. A lot of them in New Orleans didn’t have cars. A lot of them who had cars had kinfolk they had to take care of. They didn’t have cars, so they couldn’t take them out.
Yep, while interviewed on ABC’s This Week by his former acolyte George Stephanopolous, Bill Clinton spoke those words. The former president forgot to mention that it was the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans who let his city’s fleet of buses sit idle and so failed to evacuate the less fortunate residents of the Crescent City.
Perhaps, Clinton was upset that many of those affected the hurricane liked the president’s speech last Thursday. Even the woman who managed his designated successor’s presidential campaign was proud of the president and the plan he put forward.
Clinton didn’t just take issue with Mr. Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. He also faulted him for the war in Iraq and other issues. And while I was busying socializing, browsing for books and watching the pleasant flick, Just Like Heaven, a few bloggers weighed in on Mr. Clinton’s lack of class. They pointed out how his criticisms of his successor were at odds with his past statements, made both while he was in office and after he left. This blogger does a good job of fisking the former president’s interview with his one-time aide. (HT: Polipundit’s Lorie Byrd.)
Powerline claims we are entering “uncharted waters” for until now, “former Presidents of both parties have stayed out of politics and have avoided criticizing their successors.” Lorie Byrd has two posts on the topic (calling him a “No-Class Slime” and providing great links here). At National Review Online’s the Corner, K-Lo says Clinton’s working on the “MoveOn crowd for Hill.”
[Read more…]
The willfull ignorance of Bush-bashers — and their media allies
Almost since Bruce’s first post on this blog, we have been faulted for not criticizing the president enough. And while on the whole, we believe he has done a good job, each of us is aware of his faults (and his flaws). I have made clear my opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment (which the president supports) and have taken him to task for failing to follow Ronald Reagan’s vision of federalism. I have not said as much as I would like about his inability to hold the line on federal spending or about his inadquate solutions to deal with illegal immigration and border-control.
While I acknowledge that George W. Bush has been far from a perfect president, I frequently find myself in the position of Roger Simon who asked yesterday: “Am I the only one who likes Bush more every time he is excessively attacked by the mainstream media?” Roger’s “case in point” is Hurricane Katrina. Instead of seeing the Administration’s mistakes in the context of the size of the storm and the accomplishments of federal (as well as state and local) agencies in providing relief (see here for a partial listing of what went right, HT: Powerline), the MSM focus on the mistakes — so as to create a legend of his failure.
As Roger put it, “The willful ignorance of the media in their zeal to get Bush is peculiar.” And adds, “The more these attacks continue in this manner the more Bush will thrive. That’s the way humans react to unfairness.” And perhaps that’s why we have spent more defending the president than dwelling on our areas of disagreement. We see how unfairly the media, particularly the gay media, has treated the president.
[Read more…]
ABC News Shocked: New Orleans’ Katrina Victims Praise Bush, Blame State and City
Reynolds asked Connie London: “Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?” She rejected the premise: “No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state government should have been there before the federal government was called in.” She pointed out: “They had RTA buses, Greyhound buses, school buses, that was just sitting there going under water when they could have been evacuating people.”
(GP Ed. Note – Is Connie a blog-reader?)
Not one of the six people interviewed on camera had a bad word for Bush — despite Reynolds’ best efforts. Reynolds goaded: “Was there anything that you found hard to believe that he said, that you thought, well, that’s nice rhetoric, but you know, the proof is in the pudding.” Brenda Marshall answered, “No, I didn’t,” prompting Reynolds to marvel to anchor Ted Koppel: “Very little skepticism here.”
Video link here.
I guess we should listen to those who were in New Orleans, since I’m not sure any of us “Pundit Morning Quarterbacks” were there ourselves.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
UPDATE (from GPW): Listening to NPR this morning, Blogger Matt Duffy heard only negative reactions from evacuees to the president’s speech. His conclusion:
What’s the difference between the ABC News coverage and NPR’s this morning? Simple. Because ABC was broadcasting live, they didn’t have the ability to present the news according to their frame. NPR, having 12 hours with which to work, managed to present the speech from the proper perspective: Bush sucks.
HT: Polipundit’s Athena.
A Good Speech Recognizing that “Powerful American Determination” to Rebuild Better than Before
After watching the speech, I thought the president did what he needed do — and then some. His tone was exactly right and many of ideas right on the money. As I noted in my first post on the speech, I do have some concerns about what he said. Yet, of those conservatives pundits and bloggers I have read (or heard) since I first wrote, it seems I am one of the least enthusiastic about last night’s address. And I thought it was a pretty darn good speech. A very American speech. An optimistic, can-do speech.
Hugh Hewitt said the president’s “perfect pitch returned tonight” and his “looks backward and forward were on target.” On FoxNews, Dick Morris thought the president “rose to the occasion” and that the speech would help drive a turnaround in his poll numbers, particularly among women. Lorie Byrd “loved the religious references because they were beautiful and appropriate considering the wonderful work that has been done by faith-based organizations.”
Instead of focusing on the bickering and finger-pointing that have marked much of the media coverage these past two weeks, the president noted that this “was not a normal hurricane and the normal disaster relief system was not equal to it.” Yet, instead of using this line as an explanation of the failures of local, state and federal governments to provide relief, he, as a true American, did not evade responsibility. Instead, he said we are capable of meeting the challenges ahead of us and offered a number of proposals to meet those challenges.
He hailed the efforts of rescue workers and noted the generosity of the American people. Importantly, he assured those “who question the future of the Crescent City” that “there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.”
[Read more…]
Initial Thoughts on the President’s Speech
I just watched the president’s speech from New Orleans on the Katrina disaster and recovery efforts. On the whole, I think he delivered a good speech and showed that he recognized the scope of the task ahead. I hope later in the evening to update this post with more extended thoughts on the speech because I do have some concerns.
Importantly, the president wants all departments of the federal government to investigate what went wrong with the response to this disaster — at all levels. He wants to find out what went wrong so we can figure out how to better improve our reaction to future disasters of this magnitude. This is exactly the attitude the chief executive should take in response to the failures of the recovery in the immediate aftermath of the storm. And this stand is clear contradistinction to the attitude of many Democrats, notably the House Minority Leader, and their allies in the blogosphere and MSM. They want investigations to serve primarily to prove their pre-existing theories of their chief adversary’s incompetence.
Tonight the president laid out his plans for what needs to be done in the wake of this unprecedented catastrophe. Let’s hope that his adversaries address the merits of this proposal.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
UPDATE: While yours truly watched speech on Fox, PrismWarden took in the coverage on ABC and observed
There is nothing sweeter than seeing an ABC reporter interviewing black New Orleaneans, asking questions fully intended to draw out criticism of the president, only to be met with tirades against the state and local governments and warm, unanimous support of the president.
Over at Polipundit, Lorie Byrd, an up and coming Athena, noted the same thing. One evacuee “said that what the President said lifted her up and gave her hope.”
Pelosi Upset Because House Panel Won’t Prove Bush alone is to Blame for Katrina Failures
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi led all but seven of her fellow Democrats in voting against a special committee to investigate the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina.” Labeling this committee “partisan,” the San Francisco liberal faults the federal response for falling “so very short” in its relief efforts, yet in a press release (which, for some reason comes up in a Yahoo! news search), she utters nary a word about failures at the state and local level.
For Ms Pelosi — as for all too many of her fellow Democrats and the overwhelmingly majority of the MSM — the issue is not determining what exactly happened in the wake of this the “seventh deadliest natural disaster to strike this country” (HT: GOP Vixen), but finding fault with President Bush and the Administration. They don’t want an investigation to find the facts but one which confirms the legend they have created about this disaster.
Two Thoughtful Posts on Katrina
Over at Polipundit, Lorie Byrd has two excellent posts on the Katrina Disaster. In one, she lists the points she hopes the president will address in his speech tonight. In the second, she quotes an e-mail from one of her readers on the failings of the MSM in reporting this catastrophe. I highly recommend both posts.
Just like the Shinbone Star, MSM neglects the facts, prints the legend
Last night, I watched a movie which instantly joined Shane and Clint Eastwood‘s Unforgiven as one of my favorite Westerns. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, James Stewart plays Ransom Stoddard, a lawyer who thinks he can deal with Liberty Valance, a bloodthirsty bandit, through the law, but ends up facing him in a gun battle. Legend has it that he shot Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), but in reality, hiding in the shadows, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) fires the bullet that finishes off the villain. When, years later, Stoddard returns to the town for Doniphon’s funeral, he tells the press the true story, the editor of the Shinbone Star refuses to use it, saying “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
It seems in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina, the MSM is not much different from its fictional counterpart. In this case, the media made the legend–that President Bush and the federal government failed miserably in response to this once-in-a-century catastrophe. As the resignation earlier today of FEMA head Michael Brown indicates, the federal response was far from perfect, but as this blog (e.g., here, here and here) and others have shown, local agencies made the lion’s share of mistakes in the evacuation and recovery efforts.
But, despite this evidence, the MSM continues to report the legend. In an AP article today, Jennifer Loven notes that the president visited New Orleans today with “New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco — both of whom have criticized the federal response.” Ms. Loven focuses only on criticism of the president and neglects to mention that many have criticized those two individuals for flawed city and state responses (respectively) to the disaster.
[Read more…]
Anderson Cooper — Storm Stud
Our winner is….
Anderson Cooper – CNN
And in celebration… Charging Rhino sent this article about Cooper’s coverage of Katrina.
Unanchored – New York Metro
Anderson Cooper’s on-air breakdown was an honest expression of his complicated personality—and a breakthrough for the future of television news.
View full results of poll here.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
VOTE for your favorite “Storm Stud”
Based on the names offered up by GayPatriot readers… here is the official ballot to vote for your favorite “Storm Stud”.
I made some editorial judgements as to whether some of the nominees qualified…. they had to be “front and center” during Katrina coverage…. not just a pretty face on cable. *grin*
CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW!
Click on “more” to view photos of nominees…….
[Read more…]
LAST CHANCE — Nominate Your Favorite TV Storm Stud!
Those of you old enough like me (sigh) to remember the “Scud Stud”, NBC’s Arthur Kent, know the impetus behind this poll. Nominate your favorite “Storm Stud” for the next GayPatriot poll.
I was going just to do the poll… but I didn’t want to leave out any potential nominees. So, for example, my initial nominees: Anderson Cooper, Geraldo (ugh), Shep Smith, Rick Levanthal (Mr. Tight Grey T-Shirt).
So go to it… and I’ll put all the nominations together for a vote before the weekend.
UPDATE: I’m going to close nominations tonight… one last chance before the vote.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
Katrina Blame Game — America Decides
Hat tip – Queer Conservative
DRUDGE REPORT FLASH:
CNNUSATODAYGALLUP POLL: ONLY 13% BLAME BUSH?
Wed Sep 07 2005 10:42:26 ET
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 609 adults taken September 5-6 shows:
Blame Game — 13% said George W. Bush is “most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane”; 18% said “federal agencies”; 25% said “state and local officials”; 38% said “no one is to blame”; 6% had no opinion. — 29% said that “top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired”; 63% said they should not; 8% had no opinion.
MORE
Government Performance — 10% said George W. Bush has done a “great” job in “responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding”; 25% said “good”; 21% said “neither good nor bad”; 18% said “bad”; 24% said “terrible”; 2% had no opinion. — 8% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a “great” job in “responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding”; 27% said “good”; 20% said “neither good nor bad”; 20% said “bad”; 22% said “terrible”; 3% had no opinion. — 7% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a “great” job in “responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding”; 30% said “good”; 23% said “neither good nor bad”; 20% said “bad”; 15% said “terrible”; 5% had no opinion.
Developing…
By the way, I can already predict the comment thread….. “Bush is evil.” “Gay marriage.” As PatriotPartner said, I could post a picture of a kitten and the comments would be “there would be more kittens if George Bush hadn’t invaded Iraq”… and….. “that kitten is the reason I can’t see my partner in the hospital.”
Oy. I’m in a foul mood today.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)